I’m thankful to have the privilege to write a column for the Northern Virginia Daily that runs every Friday. My deadline for submitting this article, however, is on Wednesday of each week. I have to pace myself to have it written, proofread and formatted by midweek or it won’t appear at the end of the week.
So too, I face deadlines for submitting announcements and worship order for each Sunday’s bulletin as well as information for monthly newsletters. Of course, sermons are due each Sunday by the time worship begins and Bible Studies must be prepared in advance too.
When I taught school, I faced schedules there as well. In addition to deadlines for submission of grades and lesson plans, there were many applications in the Future Farmers of America organization that had to be completed by certain dates. Applications for both individual and chapter awards were many pages long and required several weeks to get them ready. Waiting until the day or two before they were due was a recipe for disaster and students would be the ones penalized if their applications were not received on time.
Of course, April always features a deadline for every American. Federal income taxes have to be filed normally by the 15th, but since that falls on a Saturday this year the deadline has been moved to April 18th. Failing to meet this annual deadline will result in additional financial consequences. It behooves every taxpayer to begin preparing forms earlier and not at 11pm the night they are due.
All of these deadlines remind us of another we all are facing and this is our death, a true dead line. Because we don’t know exactly when this will occur, we should constantly live with an attitude of preparedness. If we delay all of our goals or aspirations for when we retire or hit a certain age, we take a big risk that may not pay off.
The solution to facing our deadliest deadline is to determine what we really want to accomplish in life and then work on it each day. Accidents and reversals force us to live one day at a time but that’s really all we ever have. We must make the most of each day with life’s realities in mind.
The most important preparation is to prepare our souls to meet God. Hebrews 9:27 assures us that there are two absolute certainties for every human being. Although the first is indeed death the second is not taxes, but judgment. We will all appear either at the Great White Throne Judgment or before the Judgment Seat of Christ.
For those who have not responded to Jesus’ sacrificial death and powerful resurrection, Revelation 20 describes the Great White Throne Judgment in very fearful terms. Revelation’s author, John the Apostle, reports individuals condemned to an eternal fiery lake commonly known as Hell.
All of us who have accepted Jesus as Savior will avoid that awful fate but our deeds after becoming Christians will be examined at Jesus’ judgment seat. These do not earn our entry into heaven but will merit rewards if they escape the fires of testing described in I Corinthians 3.
Since none of us know when our deadline will arrive, we owe it to ourselves to be prepared ahead of time. We may die very suddenly from heart attack or accident, so we must not plan on a last minute opportunity for conversion but accept Jesus immediately. Missing that deadline will have everlasting consequences.
For those who have accepted Jesus, we should live each day to glorify God and obey Him in every way so that our work might make Him smile. Waiting until later to begin serving Jesus might very well never materialize.
As we face the tax deadline next week and other deadlines regularly, let’s allow them to remind us to prepare for our deadliest deadline of all.
Blessings, George